


nothing so strong as gentleness (and nothing so gentle as strength)

by skyperson12345



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: (like only if you squint), Alternate Universe, BAMF Spencer Reid, Case Fic, Derek is supportive, Gen, Hurt Spencer Reid, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Mild Blood, Minor Violence, Mute Spencer Reid, Oneshot, Possibly Pre-Slash, Reid hasn't finished at the academy yet, Spencer Reid Whump, but Prentiss and Rossi are there go figure, the timeline is kinda messed up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24901084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyperson12345/pseuds/skyperson12345
Summary: Kind of an alternate timeline where Reid is still going through the academy and the BAU team is Morgan, JJ, Rossi, Hotch, Prentiss, and Garcia. The team's chasing an unsub who kidnaps kids, but little do they know our not-quite-yet resident genius is working from the inside to bring down the creep."'He’s going to kill us all, isn’t he?' Eli, a sickly boy with bright green braces, whispered.'No, he’s not!” Connor exclaimed. “Mr. Reid has a plan. Don’t you?'"
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 381





	nothing so strong as gentleness (and nothing so gentle as strength)

**Author's Note:**

> heeeeyy...
> 
> So I realized that it doesn't make sense for me to try and stick to a writing schedule because writing is a very spur-of-the-moment type thing for me. Basically, this is just me saying that I'll write whenever I feel like it, so don't expect an update every week or every month. 
> 
> Also, I know Criminal Minds wasn't on the list that I posted a few weeks ago (I only just got into the fandom), but it's FREAKING AMAZING so I just had to write a fic about it. 
> 
> Enjoy :)
> 
> I don't own Criminal Minds (obviously)

Derek Morgan stared out of the jet window, pondering the facts of the BAU’s newest case. Seven kids had been abducted from Charlottesville, Virginia within the span of two weeks, and four of them had shown up dead in public places with their throats slashed. The ages ranged from 10 to 20, but it seemed clear that the unsub had a type. All the victims were thin males with brown, curly hair. They had all been taken from their homes during the night.

There was no sign of sexual assault, but all the bodies displayed evidence of heavy beatings. For what reason, none of them could say -- at least not until they had more information.

\--

A young blonde man with weary eyes waved the team through the front door as they pulled up to the police station.

“I’m Sheriff Summers, thanks for coming,” the man said, shaking Hotch’s hand, and then JJ’s.

“Of course, we’re happy to help.” JJ smiled, “I’m Agent Jareau, and these are Agents Hotchner, Morgan, Prentiss, and Rossi.”

“Nice to meet you all.” Summers nods in greeting and then turns to walk towards the back of the sparsely-staffed station, gesturing for the group to follow. “We set up the conference room with everything you need.”

“Have you spoken with the families of the children yet?” Hotch asked.

“Yeah, all of ‘em have come in separately.”

“Have you been able to connect the students aside from physical appearance?” Rossi questioned.

“No, we didn’t see any constants when we interviewed the families. Some were awkward, others were outgoing; some were sportsy, others couldn’t do a pull-up if their life depended on it. But, uh, all the stuff we have is in those boxes, so you’re welcome to look through it and see if we missed something.”

“Alright, thank you, Sheriff,” Hotch said. “Morgan, stay here and go over the files with Garcia. Have her check any inconsistencies and possible connections. JJ, talk to the press. Find out what they’ve released and try to regulate what they’re doing. Rossi and Prentiss, we’re going to visit the families and see if they can help us with anything new. The last abduction was two days ago, so chances are the unsub will strike again either today or tomorrow.”

As the rest of the team filtered out of the room, Morgan turned towards the stack of folders sitting innocently on the table and sighed. This was going to be a very long day.

\--

Reid had been stuck in Jones’s basement for ten days, seven hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. There were currently three other kids with him in the small, dimly-lit room, but judging from the acrid stench of death and the blood splattered on the rough walls, there used to be more. 

“Mr. Reid?” 

Reid lifted his head, wincing as the movement pulled on the fresh wounds around his throat, to see Connor, one of the older boys, looking at him. 

_What?_ he mouthed.

“What time is it?”

Careful not to disturb Jacob, a sweet little boy who was sleeping with his head in Reid’s lap, he lifted two fingers, then 10 fingers three times.

“In the afternoon?”

Reid gave him a thumbs up. Connor went silent for a moment, picking at one of the cracks on the cold concrete floor. 

“You’re going to school to be a police officer, right?”

Not feeling the need to correct him, Reid simply gave him another thumbs up.

“Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

He didn’t have an answer for that -- at least not one that didn’t include the average time it took for the police to solve cases like these, which, given how long they’d been down here, wasn’t looking favorable -- but Connor hadn’t really been expecting one.

“He’s going to kill us all, isn’t he?” Eli, a sickly boy with bright green braces, whispered.

“No, he’s not!” Connor exclaimed. “Mr. Reid has a plan. Don’t you?”

Reid nodded mutely at the hot-headed teenager and stroked a gentle hand through Jacob’s hair as the boy stirred slightly. He did have a plan, but it involved an awful lot of dumb luck, and the theoretical probability of it working wasn’t favorable. Reid would just have to hope and pray that he was just as good at profiling in real life as he was at school.

\--

“Baby girl, _please_ tell me you’ve got something good,” Morgan sighed as he accepted Garcia’s call on his computer. 

“Oh darling, I wish I could. None of the children seem connected at all, and neither do the families.”

Morgan groaned in exasperation. “This doesn’t make sense! If he’s not a sexual sadist, why would he only have a physical preference? There has to be something we’re missing…”

“I don’t know, sugar. All I know is that I am _tired_ of looking into all these perfect children. It’s just reminding me of how rebellious and annoying _I_ was at that age. If there was a national Kid of the Year award, it would have to be split between all of them.”

“What do you mean?” Morgan sat up slowly in his chair, his mind racing.

“Um, well,” Garcia hesitated, noticing his change in attitude. “It’s just that all these boys were, like -- well, at least from an outsider’s view -- totally awesome. The ones who had siblings were really nice to them, the ones who played sports were on their way to varsity, and it looks like all of them have amazing grades. There’s even this one kid who has, like, _three_ doctorates already.”

“Wait, I thought the age range was 10 to 20?”

“Yeah, I know right? The 20-year-old -- his name is Spencer Reid. He’s got PhDs in Chemistry, Mathematics, _and_ Engineering. And, get this, he’s aiming to be a profiler!”

Just then, Morgan’s phone started buzzing. He looked down at the caller ID and flipped it open. “Hotch.”

“Morgan, we just found out how he knows them and where he’s abducting them from: a volunteer group that works with mentally ill patients.”

“And Garcia and I figured out why he’s taking these boys. All of them were great kids -- perfect grades, nice to others, or good at sports.” 

“Good work. We’ll be back at the station in 10 minutes to give the profile.”

Shutting his phone, Morgan turned back to his computer and winked at his friend. “Thanks, baby. I’ll see you later.”

“Oh, yes you will,” Garcia laughed, ending the call.

\--

“Our unsub is a white male in his late 30s to early 40s,” Hotch begins smoothly, seemingly unfazed by the room full of police officers staring back at him. “Considering that the only activity all the victims had in common was a volunteer group called the Mind Healers that helps people with mental illnesses, we can assume that the unsub either works there as well or is a patient.”

“All the boys who were abducted were model students,” Morgan continued when Hotch stepped back. “Their grades were good and all their teachers loved them. The unsub probably struggled in school, and he sees kidnapping and killing these kids as a sort of revenge.”

“It’s likely that this man looks very similar to the boys he’s been taking,” Rossi added.

“Again, we’re looking for a tall white man with brown hair who is associated with the Mind Healers, and suffered in school,” Hotch reiterated. “Thank you, and good luck.”

\--

Reid was awoken by a small hand shaking his shoulder urgently.

“Mr. Reid! Mr. Reid, he’s coming!”

Bolting upright, Reid held his breath and listened. Sure enough, he could hear the ominous sound of boots thumping down the stairs.

Trying to stay calm, the older boy waved his arms in a shooing motion towards the far corner of the room. 

“Come on!” Connor whisper-shouted to the boys who didn’t understand. “Over here!”

The group had managed to scramble into the corner behind Reid just as the deadbolt on the outside of the basement door fell to the ground with a clang and their captor stepped inside.

“Well, isn’t this an adorable sight?” Jones cooed. “All the perfect little boys huddled up behind the failure.”

Somewhere in the back of Reid’s clouded, terrified mind, he registered how ironic it was that Jones was calling him a failure. The only thing he had failed to do was die.

“Come here, failure!”

Heart pounding, Reid slowly stood up and made his way over to the director of the Mind Healers. 

_Please, please, please…_

In one swift movement, Jones pulled a knife out of his belt and thrust it towards him, handle first. “Kill one of them.”

Reid almost sighed in relief. He had been right. Now all he had to do was figure out how to get out of here.

Gripping the knife in his hand, Reid analyzed the distance to the basement door through his peripheral vision. It was only a few feet. If he could just distract Jones for a few seconds… 

“I’m waiting, fail--”

With all his strength -- which, unfortunately, wasn't a lot -- Reid swung the blade into Jones’s shoulder and sprinted for the door.

“NO!” Jones bellowed, and Reid’s heart did a backflip as a large, meaty hand closed around his wrist and yanked him backward. The man ripped the knife out of his shoulder and, before Reid could twist away, sliced it down the younger man’s ribs.

“I thought you understood,” Jones snarled as Reid choked in pain, yanking desperately at his arm. “But you’re just like the others. You’re weak and pathetic and -- ARGH!”

Suddenly, the hand around his wrist was gone and Reid scrambled to his feet to see Connor stumbling away from Jones with a handful of curly, brown hair clutched in his fist.

“Run, Mr. Reid!”

Without a single backward glance, Reid dashed up the stairs and out onto the street.

\--

“Garcia, do you have a list of suspects?” Hotch asked, sitting down at the conference table with the rest of the team.

“Sir, I cross-referenced the profile with all the volunteers and patients of the Mind Healers, but that only narrows it down to 17 people.”

“Eliminate anyone who’s not local,” Morgan suggested. “If he’s only taking kids from this city, it probably means he went to school here.”

“Okay, that leaves four: Jeffery Hodges, Carter Te--”

“Agents?”

The team turned to see Sheriff Summers standing in the doorway, his eyes wide. “A kid just ran into the station.”

Hotch stood swiftly. “Was he one of the boys who were abducted?”

“He -- well, it’d be better for you to see for yourself.”

Morgan followed Summers and the others to the lobby. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It wouldn’t make sense for the unsub to release one of his victims, so the boy must have escaped. But how?

When they finally reached the kid -- he immediately recognized him as Spencer Reid from the photo Garcia had sent him -- Morgan felt a pang in his chest. Although he knew the kid was 20, he looked so small huddled on a bench with a blanket draped over his shoulders and a blood-soaked towel clutched to his side. His large hazel eyes widened as he caught sight of them, staggering shakily to his feet.

“Woah there, kid.” Morgan rushed forward and caught him before he face-planted on the ground, lowering him slowly back onto the bench. “Take it easy. You’re Spencer, right? What happened?”

The kid tipped his chin up and Morgan’s breath hitched. Angry, red scabs ran across his throat, zigzagging over his Adam’s apple and brushing up to his ears, like the unsub had tried to cut his throat but failed. They looked a couple days old, but Morgan could still see pinpricks of blood rising up through the wound. 

“Did you already call for a medic?” Hotch demanded, managing to tear his eyes away from the gruesome mess of flesh.

“Yeah, they’re three minutes out.” Summers exhaled. “So how do you want to do this?”

Spencer tapped Morgan’s shoulder to get his attention, and then mimed writing with a pen.

“Right, I’ll get some paper and pencils for you.” Summers disappeared into his office and quickly returned, carrying a notebook and a ballpoint pen.

Setting the notebook down shakily on his lap, Spencer began writing, starting with a name and an address: _Ulysses Jones, 4982 Maplewood Road…_

\--

“They’re safe.”

Reid’s head shot up to see the agent who had caught him earlier leaning against the doorway of the hospital room he’d been placed in. 

_Were any of them injured?_ he scrawled out in his notebook.

“Connor Jackson had lacerations and bruises on his arms, but otherwise, they were all fine.”

Not knowing what to say, Reid simply looked back down at his hands, fiddling with the crisp bedsheets. He heard a sigh but didn’t look up when the man dragged over a chair and sat next to him. “You know, you saved those kids.”

_I ran._

“You ran to the police, Spencer. You ran to get help. Staying there would have been a death sentence, and you know that." He paused and smiled slightly, "That’s what they teach in ‘police school.’”

Reid huffed in amusement. _Connor?_

“He wouldn’t stop talking about you,” the man chuckled. After a beat, he cocked his head and turned to Reid, a curious glint in his eyes. “How did you know he was going to give you the knife?”

_Jones saw me as a ‘failure’ because I didn’t die. It made sense that he’d want to try and make me like him._

The agent nodded and they fell into a companionable silence once more. 

“For what it’s worth, I think you’d be an amazing profiler.”

Reid looked up sharply. _Even being unable to speak?_

“You’re smart and resilient. You managed to survive something that would’ve gotten many people I know killed. I’m sure you’d find a way.”

“Morgan?” A dark-haired woman knocked on the doorframe, sticking her head inside. “It’s almost time to leave.”

“Be there in a sec,” The agent -- Morgan -- said with a nod. With a sigh, he turned back to Reid, pulled a card out of his pocket, and pressed it into Reid's hand. “If you ever have any questions, or just want to talk, don’t hesitate to text or email me, alright? I look forward to working with you in the future.”

Agent Morgan patted his shoulder in farewell and then followed the woman out the door, oblivious to the shell-shocked expression on Reid’s face as he stared after them. Reid looked down at the simple blue and white business card in his hand, a warm, tingly feeling bubbling up in his chest. For the first time in at least a year, the young doctor smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> WHEW! That end was a little forced but... meh
> 
> I was originally a little hesitant to post this because there are SO MANY Criminal Minds case fics out there that are better than this one, but I really like the idea of a mute Reid because it's like he has all this information and he's so intelligent, but now his way of expressing his thoughts and ideas is severely hindered and he has to find a way to deal with that. Sorry to anyone who was hoping to actually see the BAU go and arrest the Jones dude, I couldn't find it in myself to write it out.
> 
> Hope ya liked it :)
> 
> ALSO: I'm open to CM prompts if you'd like to provide some...


End file.
